A young man understandably scolded a family who let their child steal the aisle seat he had paid extra for on American Airlines. But even worse is when American Airlines flight attendants seemed to side with the thieving family.

American Airlines Crew Defends Seat-Stealing Family

Osaac Summer boarded an American Airlines redeye and found a little girl occupying his seat. He was told by the family that he would need to sit in the window seat nearby so that they would not be separated.

Um, no.

“I don’t care about your daughter, your child and none of that. I paid for this one! Stay in your lane and in your seat!”

He added, “I’m not five years old. I don’t care about looking out the window!”

Summer is 6-feet, 2-inches, and claimed he paid extra to assign that particular aisle seat.

@lalawright2

Respectfully they should’ve asked him if it was coo first cause he did pay for that seat.

♬ original sound – lalawright2

As far as I am concerned, that is the end of he story, at least in terms of that particular seat.

Sorry, but a family cannot just claim any seat they want and then act like it is an entitlement.

But the story gets even worse. Summer shares his account of what happens and alleges:

• He saw another open seat and took it
• A flight attendant said he could not sit there (makes sense – it was assigned to someone else)
• The flight attendant then seemed to defend the actions of the poaching family, saying, “She got on the plane before you,” and urged him to take the window seat (how’s that for logic?)
• The flight attendant added, “You are being the bad guy” and told him he could walk off the plane if he wanted
• Another passenger got up and gave up her aisle seat for Summer (in an attempt to just get the flight out)
• Summer got “agitated” and “aggravated” after a family member told him to shut up when he was complaining about the seat to the flight attendant (I understand…)
• Then another flight attendant came by, knelt in front of the family and said, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Your daughter is really beautiful. Thank you for flying with us.”
• Summer thought, “This is a joke now.” (no kidding…)

@osaacsummer

MORAL OF THE STORY GIVE PEOPLE THEIR SEAT THEY PAID FOR! Follow up from @lalawright2 video of me on the plane.

♬ original sound – osaacsummers

It seems this matter was handled very poorly by the flight attendants.

CONCLUSION

As Summer says, “Moral of the story: just take your assigned seats and flight attendants, just do your jobs.”

He’s right. But may I add a couple of thoughts? Gate agents are overworked and show up to flights just ahead of boarding, already frazzled because they are under strict orders to get flights out on time. American Airlines must invest in the technology to ensure families are not separated onboard…there is not sufficient staffing and time to sort everything out at the gate and it’s also unreasonable to drop that on flight attendants to handle onboard.

As an aside, I don’t think families should be permitted to buy basic economy tickets. Basic economy tickets do not come with seat assignments; seat assignments are necessary for families with young children; therefore, basic economy class tickets should not be sold to families traveling with children who cannot be separated.

If seats are not available together on your chosen flight, find a different flight.

And I say that as a frequent traveler with two young children.

The audacity of poaching a seat without asking is bad enough, but a flight attendant reinforcing that is even worse.

It seems to me that Summer deserves an apology from all parties involved.